Archive for January, 2014

If you find yourself in San Diego or just across the boarder plan an afternoon meal and a visit to Popotla. This small but thriving fishing village provides the Photographer with so many opportunities. The warm and friendly locals where more than happy to show us the daily catch. The north of the boarder tourists were far outnumbers by the fisherman, local towns people and restaurateurs buying the fresh catch of the day. Our only regret was that we didn’t have a room with a full kitchen and my trusted treager. Next best was Mariscos La Tia restaurant, the butterflied grilled fish was beyond belief, and we were treated to Karaoke Baja style.

Heaven for the photographer, an opportunity with every step. Most of the action happened mid day when the morning fishing fleet returned and the light was a bit harsh. Good thing it was January, the winter mid day sun is a bit more friendly.

Enjoy……

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Truth be told, deep down I have thought abstracts are a copout. It is my comfort zone. I can always resort to the abstraction when I am frustrated, didn’t do my preproduction homework or emotionally not ready to take chances with my photography.

I do think abstracts are good exercises in seeing, composition, and lighting. They usually don’t move so you have plenty of time to construct the image. They rarely dictate the composition, the photographer does. A good abstracts can have all the emotional qualities that any other image can.

Maybe my struggle is that I don’t feel my abstracts are preconceived, they are a surprise. I point my camera at a pile of seaweed at Point Lobos and Bam, there it is! A surprise, a composition reveled itself to me at the moment and I made a pretty picture. I don’t feel I worked for it, nor deserve it. The funny thing is when I prepare a preconceived photo shoot I welcome the surprise, the spontaneous moment… Go figure!

Below are some examples of a very frustrating day of shooting with a camera that was malfunctioning, no previsualization, no surprises while shooting, and no expectations whatsoever.

What did happen was a process that I was unfamiliar with. While I sat in the hotel room looking at the images I began to see things, some potential, a finished product. I have never been much of a postvisualization creator, I sure it has happened at some point in my career but not to the extent it did with these images, or in the past I wasn’t at a point that I could recognize it, or more to the point embrace it.